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-
- New book on 32-bit OS/2
-
- Designing OS/2 Applications
- By David E. Reich
-
-
- Author: David E. Reich
- Title: *Designing OS/2 Applications
- Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- ISBN No.: 0-471-58889-X
- IBM PUBORDER No. : SC28-2701
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-
- Description: Designing OS/2 Applications is for
- application designers or programmers
- interested in writing applications (in
- text mode or Presentation Manager*) for
- 32-bit OS/2*. Thus, the book focuses on
- the concepts and functions common to
- the 32-bit OS/2 platform, omitting
- references to specific versions of
- OS/2.
-
- An understanding of the basic OS/2
- concepts of multitasking,
- multithreading, virtual memory and
- device independence is helpful but not
- required. Designed to be
- language-neutral, the book discusses
- the pros and cons of various
- programming languages and tools;
- however, the discussion, as well as
- OS/2 programming, assumes a C language
- orientation.
-
- Designing OS/2 Applications guides
- readers through the complete design of
- an application, from understanding why
- they would want to write applications
- for OS/2 to setting the objectives for
- the application through the design,
- coding and testing, and finally to
- performance tuning and designing the
- installation program and international
- language support. Throughout the book,
- emphasis is on efficient program design
- and structure.
-
- Readers will gain an understanding
- of the functions and features available
- as well as which ones are most
- appropriate for providing a specific
- feature to users, along with the
- programming and compatibility
- considerations of each.
-
- The book contains seven sections.
- Section One discusses the reasons for
- writing OS/2 applications.
-
- Section Two covers overall
- application design, including
- understanding the target environment,
- in this case, OS/2. The architecture
- of OS/2 is explored in depth, beginning
- with the kernel, or core services. The
- section discusses Presentation Manager
- architecture and the Workplace Shell*.
- Finally, mapping these functions to the
- reader's specific application is
- explored.
-
- Section Three outlines the basics of
- an application, including creation of
- the fundamental building blocks of the
- application -- the user interface and
- the other "worker" code. Included are
- discussions ranging from memory
- management layout to file layout.
-
- Building upon the previous chapters,
- Section Four addresses writing the
- code, including how to structure the
- source code tree for flexibility.
- Following that is a discussion of
- prototyping the user interface,
- including the multithreading aspects of
- managing windows. Next, the design of
- the core function is explored,
- including memory management, thread
- synchronization, interprocess
- communication, file and message
- functions, as well as advanced topics
- such as clipboard and Dynamic Data
- Exchange.
-
- Section Five introduces the reader
- to overall application performance
- tuning topics and techniques as they
- relate to the application itself as
- well as how the application relates to
- others programs OS/2 users may be
- running. Also discussed are techniques
- for making application windows appear
- smoother and faster.
-
- Section Six discusses testing
- procedures and code changes, including
- some indicators for knowing when a
- particular module or subsystem should
- be rewritten.
-
- Section Seven discusses the
- application's installation program and
- packaging.
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-